From Struggling in School to ‘Killing It’ at NASA

A UCLA student helps scientists explore Mars in virtual reality, building immersive tools for mission planning as part of her internship at NASA/JPL.

Photo by Kim Orr

Client: NASA JPL Education

The Brief: One of several dozen intern Q&As I wrote for the Meet JPL Interns series, this piece stood out for its relatable story of perseverance—making it one of the most read in the series. As with every story, but especially one centered on the subject’s personal struggles, I worked closely with the intern, her mentor, and JPL stakeholders to tell it with empathy and care, ensuring everyone involved was happy with the final result.

Excerpt:

Until she discovered game development, Michelle Vo’s daydreams were a problem. She couldn’t focus in her computer science classes. Her grades were dipping. She wondered whether she was cut out to be a programmer or for school at all.

So she took a break to make something just for fun, a self-help game. And help her, it did.

Now focusing on virtual and augmented reality, Vo is back at school, studying not just computer science, but also cognitive science, linguistics and digital humanities. It’s a lot, but to create a virtual world, she says one has to first understand how people navigate the real one.

This summer, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the UCLA student applied her talents to VR and AR experiences that help scientists explore a totally different world: Mars. While Vo’s tendency to daydream hasn’t gone away, she now knows how to use the distractions for good; she turns them into VR inspiration.

What are you working on at JPL?

I worked on this project called OnSight, which just won NASA Software of the Year! I also worked on another project for the InSight Mars lander mission. Honestly, it’s been such a dream come true to intern here. I actually used to struggle a lot with school because I would often get caught up in my own daydreams. However, I’m really glad I found a unique career path in VR where I can turn those dreams into something useful.

That's so great that you were able to channel your daydreams in that way. How did you go from struggling in school to doing VR?

When I first tried on a VR headset, I was like, "This is the future. I need to do whatever I can to learn about this." I decided to study computer science, but it was easy to get lost and fall behind in a large classroom environment. Not a lot of people know this, but I was on academic probation for a while. Looking back, I think my shyness held me back from asking for the help that I needed.